Allogloom, from New Zealand solo developer Kate, working under the name Galactic Ghostly, is a game with the eerie ability to quietly crawl under your skin and stay there. Its hand-painted visuals, all dark shadows and muted colours, stand in stark contrast to its whimsical characters and cozy point-and-click sensibilities. As Nora, a resident of Gruesome Grove, players set out to uncover what has gone so profoundly wrong. The town’s inhabitants have vanished, the moths seem to be watching your every move and each carefully constructed puzzle peels back another layer of a mystery spanning eight chapters and six interconnected worlds.
Beneath its unsettling fairy-tale aesthetic lies a story shaped by Kate’s own experiences of growing up with “strange… fringe religious ideas about the world” and the gradual process of questioning them. “There are definitely elements of myself reflected in Nora’s journey,” she says. That deeply personal perspective extends to the way the game was made. Rather than specialising in a single craft, Kate taught herself illustration, writing, animation and game design to realise her vision. “I don’t really like specialising in one area,” she explains. “I get a bit bored doing the same thing over and over and solo development keeps my interest.”
Why did you become a solo developer?
“I don’t really like specialising in one area. I get a bit bored doing the same thing over and over, and with solo development it keeps my interest. There is always a challenge and always something new to learn. I also had an interest in story writing, game design and illustration from a young age and started to learn how to mod and paint textures for games that I played when I was young.“
What are the biggest advantages of working solo?
“Having creative control and really being able to bring the vision in your head to life in a way that is personal.”
And the biggest pitfalls?
“Having creative control… This means if something is not working or taking longer than usual to do, that’s on you. So there is a lot of pressure that you put on yourself, and it can be hard to meet your own expectations sometimes.”
What’s your creative process?
“I have piles of sketchbooks and journals with ideas. I like to write or doodle them the most. For designing my puzzles, I planned out the story first and separated it into 8 chapters. Then for each chapter, I thought about how the characters might make Nora’s journey a bit more difficult for her in interesting ways. Some puzzles were designed to show off parts of a character’s personality, some to show the culture of a location and some to reveal important story information to Nora.”
How do you stay motivated through (years of) development?
“I will admit this is not something I personally struggle with. I really enjoy game development. Absolutely love that there is always something new to learn! I think that’s what keeps me motivated, constantly having to learn new things.”
Will you ever work in a team or is it only solo for you?
“I would be happy to work in a team! I enjoy collaborating with other people, and that creative energy from building something with a team and seeing it come together is a wonderful experience. However, I think that I would always have something of my own on the side. I have many things I would still like to create.”
How did you get the idea for Allogloom?
“I have always been drawn to strange, creepy and even morbid things. I wanted to make a game that reflected and explored these interests. With some silliness sprinkled in there as well. Allogloom also explores themes that I have experienced in my own life growing up. Particularly things that Nora will begin to question on her journey, and some of the residents in Gruesome Grove have already begun to question for themselves, to their own detriment.”
“I wanted to explore, in kind of a silly way, what it was like being taught and growing up with strange, I will say, fringe religious ideas about the world and how it worked, thinking these ideas were completely normal and true as a child. And what it’s like to start questioning those ideas as I grew up. So, there are definitely elements of myself reflected in Nora’s journey and her reaction to finding out new things that contradict the views learned in her own upbringing.”
This is your first solo developed game. What’s the biggest lesson learned from this project?
“You just have to be persistent, but also productive procrastination is an annoying thing that I have had to learn to overcome. In my case, learning that mental work is work and the amount of assets you can produce does not mean you are actually working well.”
“Sometimes, if you are stuck, for example, designing a puzzle. It can feel like there’s pressure to keep working through it and produce art assets or animation for a scene. But it is better to actually sit with the area you are stuck on, brainstorm ideas and come up with a solution. It may seem like a simple thing, but not having anything tangible to show for a day’s worth of work can feel like wasted time.”
“So, a day’s worth of work may just look like a few scribbles on a page in a notebook, but it saves sooooo much time and assets that now don’t need to be thrown away because they don’t fit the solution any more. I now catch myself doing this and realise when I need to take a step back and do some extra planning before I get carried away.’
The toll on your mental health can be quite high as a solo developer. How do you deal with that?
“Yeah, that is very true. It can be very easy to feel overwhelmed at times with how much work that goes into making a game on your own. I am lucky to have the most supportive husband who encourages my creativity and passion not just in game development but any hobby I may gain interest in. I also have a large group of friends who I chat with daily and play silly games with in the evening. This all helps to keep me mostly sane.”
Allogloom comes out on PC 13 October 2026 ans is published by Iceberg Interactive.